Hi Aaron, thanks for your response.
The reason I placed the detection in insert_mods is to follow psample
module logic which is the same (best effort) and it's there.
Anyway I'll move it per your suggestion and will modify the log.
Regards,
Reuven
On 07/07/2026 17:07, Aaron Conole wrote:
External email: Use caution opening links or attachments
Reuven Plevinsky via dev <[email protected]> writes:
In case the OVS kernel module is not installed, OVS userspace can
still be used. Currently its absence blocks OVS startup.
Allow it with a warning. Attempting to create a "system" type
bridge will fail with "No such file or directory" errors in the
ovs-vswitchd log.
Signed-off-by: Reuven Plevinsky <[email protected]>
---
utilities/ovs-kmod-ctl.8 | 16 +++++++++++-----
utilities/ovs-kmod-ctl.in | 7 ++++++-
2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/utilities/ovs-kmod-ctl.8 b/utilities/ovs-kmod-ctl.8
index c36638e79f52..5acffa931e71 100644
--- a/utilities/ovs-kmod-ctl.8
+++ b/utilities/ovs-kmod-ctl.8
@@ -43,9 +43,14 @@ Each of \fBovs\-kmod\-ctl\fR's commands is described
separately below.
.
.PP
The \fBinsert\fR command loads the Open vSwitch kernel modules, if
-needed. If this fails, and the Linux bridge module is loaded but no
-bridges exist, it tries to unload the bridge module and tries loading
-the Open vSwitch kernel module again.
+needed. If the \fBopenvswitch\fR kernel module is not installed on
+the system, the command continues without it, allowing Open vSwitch
+to operate in userspace\-only mode.
+.PP
+If \fBmodprobe\fR\|(8) fails for an installed module, and the Linux
+bridge module is loaded but no bridges exist, the command tries to
+unload the bridge module and retries loading the Open vSwitch kernel
+module.
.
.SH "The ``remove'' command"
.
@@ -58,8 +63,9 @@ modules.
.
\fBovs\-kmod\-ctl\fR exits with status 0 on success and nonzero on
failure. The \fBinsert\fR command is considered to succeed if kernel
-modules are already loaded; the \fBremove\fR command is considered to
-succeed if none of the kernel modules are loaded.
+modules are already loaded or if the \fBopenvswitch\fR module is not
+installed (userspace\-only mode); the \fBremove\fR command is considered
+to succeed if none of the kernel modules are loaded.
.
.SH "ENVIRONMENT"
.
diff --git a/utilities/ovs-kmod-ctl.in b/utilities/ovs-kmod-ctl.in
index 19f1009647e2..daa8c42d4e3d 100644
--- a/utilities/ovs-kmod-ctl.in
+++ b/utilities/ovs-kmod-ctl.in
@@ -29,7 +29,12 @@ done
insert_mods () {
# Try loading openvswitch kernel module.
- action "Inserting openvswitch module" modprobe openvswitch
+ modinfo openvswitch > /dev/null 2>&1
+ if test $? = 0; then
+ action "Inserting openvswitch module" modprobe openvswitch
+ else
+ log_warning_msg "No openvswitch module, running in userspace mode only"
+ fi
This seems to be a "return 0" effect here to avoid doing the check in
insert_mods_if_required - but that is probably where we should do the
detection that the module is available. So I guess it probably is
better to do it in the `insert_kmods_if_required` function::
if ! modinfo openvswitch > /dev/null 2>&1 ; then
log_warning_msg ....
fi
Also, "running in userspace mode only" isn't exactly correct. Rather,
we know that the vswitchd will not be able to use the netlink datapath,
but I think the message here is misleading. For example, AF_XDP is
kindof a hybrid mode that will still work. I suggest something more
neutral, like "openvswitch module isn't available".
}
insert_kmods_if_required() {
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